Lieutenant general and others in dock for Army top-secret letter leak

NEW DELHI: The Army's top-secret operational plans and troop deployment along the Line of Actual Control with China in the eastern sector may have been compromised around two years ago, when a letter dispatched by the Tezpur-based IV Corps went missing and is yet to be traced.


A lieutenant general and five other officers are now facing the music after a court of inquiry (CoI) found them prima facie guilty for the shocking lapse. Sources on Wednesday said the six officers are facing either administrative action or the much-harsher disciplinary action in the form of court martial depending on the gravity of the charges against them.

Lieutenant General NS Ghei, who was then a major-general commanding the 21 Mountain Division at Rangia but was later promoted and is now commanding the Bathinda-based 10 Corps along the border with Pakistan, has been apparently let off with some minor administrative action, which could range from a censure to loss of seniority, said sources.

It was in January 2011 that the top-secret letter was dispatched by the IV Corps to the 21 Mountain Division at Rangia, which detailed the operational plans, troop deployment patterns and other critical information connected with the sensitive LAC. The letter also contained specific details of the contingency plans and exercises, types and number of equipment to be deployed, and the role and responsibilities of the 21 Division in support of the larger IV Corps, in case any People's Liberation Army threat needed to be countered.

The letter went missing within a week of being received by the 21 Mountain Division, which was then headed by Major General Ghei, but for a long time it was kept under wraps, said a source.

The Army on Wednesday denied any attempts to hush up the entire matter or that the CoI into the incident was delayed. At that time, General VK Singh, who later fought a messy battle with the government over his age, was the Army chief. Present Army Chief General Bikram Singh, who earlier was the Eastern Army Command chief, is pushing for the raising of a new mountain corps (40,000 troops), which will be headquartered at Panagarh in West Bengal, at a cost of Rs 81,000 crore spread over the 12th Plan (2012-2017). The new formation, which now requires the final cabinet committee on security nod, will plug operational gaps along the LAC as well as give India some ground offensive capabilities, for the first time against China.